Man Sitting In Car Slashed By Robber At Westgate Mall Police

July 18, 1986|The Morning Call

A 65-year-old East Allen Township man sitting in his car was slashed in the neck yesterday during a robbery attempt in the parking lot of the Westgate Mall.

Samuel Spangler of 5332 Colony Drive was treated at the nearby Muhlenberg Hospital Center for stab wounds of the neck and lower abdomen and released. Bethlehem police said Spangler was held up by an unknown assailant at 6:55 p.m. Spangler was sitting in his car waiting for his wife, who was shopping in Hess's Westgate.

A struggle ensued, police said, and Spangler was cut by the assailant, who wielded a hunting knife with a 6-inch blade. According to Bethlehem police Sgt. Bernard Benko, the assailant was scared off by passers-by and fled on foot toward Route 22 and Hanover Township, Northampton County.

Police said the assailant was a young white man, unshaved, shirtless and wearing a black leather vest and jeans.

Benko said no money was taken.

The knife was recovered. Blood stains were visible on the driver's side door of Spangler's Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and on the front seat.

Spangler was taken by a passer-by to Muhlenberg Hospital Center, across the street from Hess's Westgate.

Benko said neither Spangler nor his assailant were at the scene when police and mall security officials arrived.